“BAGGAGE CLAIM” — Would it be an unforgivable pun to call “Baggage Claim” a mixed bag? This breezy, cheesy, wildly uneven romantic comedy, directed by David E. Talbert and adapted from his novel, stars the gorgeous Paula Patton as Montana, a flight attendant who’s staring at the big 3-0 and is desperate to get married. And from that offensive premise, “Baggage Claim” only gets more retro: In her ridiculously strenuous efforts to get a ring on it, she puts herself through all manner of pain, humiliation and illegality in order to accidentally-on-purpose bump into a series of ex-boyfriends as they take holiday flights between Thanksgiving and Christmas. (The illegality comes in when Montana’s besties, played by Adam Brody and Jill Scott, access the unwitting gentlemen’s flight information, the better for Montana to ambush them while looking her best.) There’s so much wrong with “Baggage Claim” — from its outdated story line and similarities to the dreadful “What’s Your Number” to Talbert’s clumsy, flat-screen directing — that it’s all the more surprising when things go right. But it would be unfair to deny that it doesn’t provide its own modest, sometimes outright hilarious, pleasures. Patton, who starred in the rom-com “Jumping the Broom” a few years ago, here adopts an annoyingly wispy, little-girl persona. But she’s sensational to look at, as are the scrumptious actors who play her line of leading men, an ensemble that includes no less than Taye Diggs, Djimon Hounsou, Boris Kodjoe and Derek Luke, who delivers an appealingly low-key performance as Montana’s childhood friend and current neighbor, William. Anyone with a heartbeat will know where “Baggage Claim” will end up (or, more precisely, with whom). Anyone with a brain won’t believe a word of it. Still, there are some genuinely amusing moments along the way, most of them courtesy of Brody and Scott, who add spicy dollops of naughty humor to the otherwise gratifyingly un-raunchy proceedings. PG-13. 1 hour, 33 minutes. 2 stars

“CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2” — Experienced chefs will tell you that changing one or two crucial ingredients in a prize-winning recipe can turn a delectable meal into a flavorless dish you’d hesitate to feed to your pet. A similar switch deflates “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2.” Original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller have departed the “Cloudy” kitchen, and even though their “Cloudy” replacements, Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn, have access to almost all of the components that helped make the first film a critical and commercial success, this noisy sequel delivers about as much pizzazz as reheated leftovers. The sequel picks up eight minutes after the 2009 “Cloudy” concluded. Amateur inventor Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader) continues to clean up the delicious mess created by his Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator, a device that turns water into food. His faulty invention catches the eye of Chester V (Will Forte) — Flint’s childhood idol, and the mysterious chief executive of a burgeoning idea factory named Live Corp. Chester offers Flint a dream job at the California company, but his first assignment sounds familiar: He’s ordered to return to his hometown of Swallow Falls and once again disconnect the Food Replicator, which currently is creating hundreds of new, edible species called Foodimals. The first “Cloudy” whipped a tornado of tasty food jokes into a spot-on satire of natural-disaster pictures like “Twister” or “The Day After Tomorrow.” Lord and Miller took the simple concepts of Judi Barrett’s 1978 children’s book and blew them up to epic proportions (and portions), lampooning Hollywood’s overblown, post-apocalyptic film genre in the process. But instead of upping the ante, as so many sequels do, “Cloudy 2” merely gets the band back together — including perky weather girl Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), immature bully Brent (Andy Samberg) and Flint’s level-headed father (James Caan) — for a repetitive mission that calls to mind multiple beats from the first movie. PG. 1 hour, 35 minutes.

“DESPICABLE ME 2” — It’s far from the perfect animated movie, but, when you weigh its pluses against its minuses, “Despicable Me 2” comes about pretty Gru-vy. Really, how can you not love Gru? Voiced by Steve Carell, the rotund, pointy-nosed fellow was introduced in 2010’s likewise enjoyable “Despicable Me” as a super villain out to steal the moon. However, after finding himself caring for three young orphan girls — oldest Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), youngest Agnes (Elsie Fisher) and Edith (Dana Gaier) — he finds he has a good heart and changes his ways. In the sequel, he, the girls and his adorable Minions — all those little, yellow, mumbling creatures from the first movie — are back. Gru is being recruited by the Anti-Villain League because someone has stolen a dangerous serum that has the potential to turn innocent beings into larger, monstrous versions of themselves. Gru partners with a female AVL agent, Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), a development that excites the girls, especially Agnes, who desperately yearns for a mother figure. As for the job at hand, Gru begins to suspect a man named Eduardo (Benjamin Bratt), the owner of a Mexican restaurant, of being onetime masked villain El Macho, who years ago was believed to have perished in a volcano. While ideally they would have found a way to give this second chapter of Gru’s story a bit more depth, returning writers Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio and directors Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin have done a fine job. It’s nice that the franchise wasn’t handed right over to a new brain trust. Likewise, the voice work in “Despicable Me 2” is solid. You know what you’re going to get from Carell — his performance goes so well with Gru’s odd looks — and Wiig and Bratt are good if unremarkable. (Bratt took over the role of Eduardo from Al Pacino, who reportedly left the movie two months before the release over creative differences. It would have been fun to hear the veteran actor ham it up, but oh well.) You’d like to laugh a little more — and maybe even tear up a bit — in “Despicable Me 2,” but you’ll have to settle for the whole family being entertained. Gru-vy indeed. PG. 1 hour, 38 minutes. 2.5 stars
“DON JON” — Joseph Gordon-Levitt has certainly grown up since playing the whippersnapper on “3rd Rock From the Sun.” In “Don Jon,” his feature-length writing and directorial debut, he stars as Jon, a New Jersey bartender who has no trouble bedding ladies but finds pornography so much more transcendent. “Don Jon” is a disarming film that proves Gordon-Levitt’s deftness both behind the camera and in front of a computer screen, writing. The movie starts as a raunch-fest, reveling in crass language and frank discussions about the relative merits of computer-generated ecstasy over the old-fashioned kind. But somewhere along the way, the comedy seamlessly morphs into an incisive satire and, finally, an extremely affecting story about the value of intimacy between two real people — not actors, not avatars. The film switches gears from simple comedy to something more once Barbara (Scarlett Johansson) enters the picture. Gordon-Levitt makes Barbara a foil for Jon. rather than harboring an addiction to pornography, she believes in a different kind of fakery: the happy endings and prince charmings of romantic comedies. While their predilections look different, they aren’t. Both characters have confused moving pictures with reality, so when everyday life unfolds before them, it tends to look less vibrant than the fantasy worlds they’ve virtually inhabited. The story makes clever use of repetition, demonstrating evolution by the way Jon approaches certain routines that become familiar to the viewer. He goes to the club with his boys, he eats dinner with his family (Where have Tony Danza and Glenne Headly been? Both are wonderful as the loud, sports-obsessed father and the oppressive mother who yearns to be a grandma), he goes to church and confesses his sins — including his vast computer usage — and pumps iron at the gym. Barbara also convinces him to start taking a class, which is where he’s befriended by a flighty oversharer, Esther (Julianne Moore). The only real down side of “Don Jon” is the extreme vulgarity, especially early on. It’s easy to imagine that some of Jon’s audacious admissions could alienate certain audience members, and it would be a shame if the outrageousness overshadowed the movie’s thoughtful revelations and surprisingly sweet heart. R. 1 hour, 30 minutes. 3 stars

“ELYSIUM” — Four years ago, first-time director Neill Blomkamp put a spin on a basic sci-fi conceit and turned it into a parable about apartheid in his native South Africa. A low-budget indie film, “District 9” was not only a surprise box office hit but earned an Oscar nomination for best picture. Blomkamp is back and again has turned a classic bit of sci-fi business (the dystopia with a simmering undercurrent of class conflict) into an allegory to comment on politics and social failings. But “Elysium” has a much bigger budget and big name stars and was made under the studio system — which may not have worked out for the best. It is not as razor-sharp or as wonderfully surprising as “District 9,” although it can hardly be called a complete failure. In “Elysium,” it’s 2154 and Los Angeles — all of Earth, for that matter — is not the kind of place you’d want to live. The City of Angels is a city of hell, a sprawling, polluted, overpopulated slum far worse than modern-day Sao Paulo, Brazil or Mexico City. There’s precious little work, less food and even less medical care. The rich and powerful? Oh, they’ve split for a sleek, futuristic space station where they live the good life and keep the riffraff on the planet below at bay. The station, Elysium, is only 19 minutes from Earth by shuttle but for the huddled masses, it might as well at the edge of the universe. Max (Matt Damon) is an ex-car thief whose dream is to one day buy a ticket to the paradise in the sky. But Max’s life is completely altered when he is hit with a lethal dose of radiation at work, giving him only five days to live. His only hope is to get to Elysium, where any illness or injury can be cured in seconds. Delacourt (Jodie Foster) — the Elysium official charged with security — is not pleased by the intruder and unleashes her top agent, the mercenary Kruger (Sharlto Copley from “District 9”) on Max and two innocents he’s picked up along the way: his childhood friend Frey (Alice Braga) and her young daughter who is dying of cancer. For about two-thirds of “Elysium,” Blomkamp seems completely in charge of his material with striking representations of both the grim Los Angeles of the future and the space station, great use of special effects and potent takes on modern-day issues. But then his storytelling fails him and what had been an absorbing thriller devolves into a standard issue slugfest between Max and Kruger. You never really get a real sense of the people who populate the film — whether they live on Earth or on the space station. Still, for all its flaws, “Elysium” is an often-absorbing and largely entertaining film from a young director with a great future. That makes it worth seeing — if not a complete success. R. 1 hour, 49 minutes.

“THE FAMILY” — Talk about a promising duo for a dark mob comedy: Robert De Niro, whose mob-film pedigree needs no explanation, and Michelle Pfeiffer, who was, after all, “Married to the Mob.” Happily, these two more than carry their weight as husband and wife in director/co-writer Luc Besson’s new film “The Family.” Less happily, it’s not enough to save this oddly paced, overly violent, sometimes amusing but sometimes jarringly unfunny movie. De Niro is Giovanni Manzoni, an ex-mob boss from Brooklyn who’s snitched on his former cohorts and must disappear fast, along with his wife and two kids. Newly named the Blakes, they set up in a picturesque Normandy village. There, Fred, Maggie and kids Belle and Warren try to assimilate. They’re not too great at it, since they have varying anger management issues. The movie itself has a few issues, but the major one is violence in the name of “dark comedy.” Giovanni — er, Fred — cannot refrain from beating people to a pulp, or to death even, if he feels he’s been disrespected or dealt a raw deal. At one point, a plumber gives him an estimate he doesn’t like. Not a good idea. Maggie (a funny and touching Pfeiffer) tries to rein in her husband. But hey, even she’s not above a little arson — actually, blowing stuff up — when she feels slighted. As for the beautiful, blonde Belle (Dianna Agron of “Glee”), she has a propensity to beat up schoolmates — say, if you swipe her pencil box. Brother Warren (an appealing John D’Leo) has the most self-control, but he’s inherited other qualities from Dad. Watching over the family are a couple FBI handlers and their boss, played by Tommy Lee Jones, who could do this kind of cranky-agent stuff in his sleep, but is nonetheless a welcome presence. It takes an awfully long time to establish the story, and the pacing feels off. Finally, things get going when the jailed mob boss back home finds out, via an absurd (yet amusing) chain of coincidences, where the family is. R. 1 hour, 50 minutes. 2.5 stars
“INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2” — When we last left the Lamberts, the family whose eldest son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins), had been trapped in a comalike state in “Insidious,” the boy had awakened from his supernatural trance thanks to a rescue mission by his intrepid father. Like a paranormal Navy SEAL, Daddy (Patrick Wilson) had metaphorically rappelled, under hypnosis, into the spirit realm, where his son was being held captive by ectoplasmic terrorists. “Insidious: Chapter 2” picks up the story there. Where do you go with a tale that ended so over the top, in a fog-shrouded netherworld called “The Further”? Apparently, even further. Although “Insidious” had built up a nice head of suspense for much of the film, its final act was absurdly out of proportion to the delicious sense of dread that had been created by director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell, who, since collaborating on the 2004 “Saw,” have made a name for themselves as horror auteurs. Here, they try to outdo what they did in “Insidious,” piling on plot twists borrowed from a host of other movies that, while in some cases are genuinely creepy, turn “Chapter 2” into a bustling, overly busy mess. Remember “Poltergeist”? It’s essentially the model for both “Insidious” films, which presuppose a parallel universe beyond the physical one, inhabited by malevolent entities who can drift in and out of our world, and into whose world we — or at least some of us — can also enter, willingly or not. That 1982 film posited an alternate “sphere of consciousness” that could be entered, quite literally, by spiritual spelunkers tethered to a rope. Similarly, “Insidious: Chapter 2” features a visit to the Further by someone tied to — I kid you not — a piece of string. Stick to Wan’s “The Conjuring” (also starring Wilson) for that. Unfortunately, that exquisitely restrained fright-fest, which is still in theaters, is starting to look more and more like a fluke for the filmmaker, who seems to be running out of ideas, even as he amps up the demand for them. Get ready for even less of them in “Insidious: Chapter 3,” a sequel whose inevitability is ensured by the teaser ending of “Chapter 2.” PG-13. 1 hour, 30 minutes. 1.5 stars
“LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER” — This is an ambitious success — a passionate, sweeping epic that intimately reflects the civil rights movement through the eyes of a White House butler and his family. It’s a well-told story and important film. Anchored by a graceful performance by Forest Whitaker, the star-laden production does an admirable and, at times, magnificent job at weaving major historical milestones and political figures into the fabric of well-drawn characters’ lives. A few seams do appear in an otherwise intelligent screenplay by Danny Strong (HBO’s “Game Change”). Coincidences occasionally happen too conveniently, dulling the dramatic punch. But that is no deal breaker; there are plenty of emotional scenes that hit hard and true. The acting, including the many cameos, is across-the-board superb. Oscar-winner Whitaker is a standout as Cecil Gaines, a butler who served seven presidents. The main character is a fictionalized version of real-life White House butler Eugene Allen. He was featured in a 2008 Washington Post article by Wil Haygood, which caught the eye of the producer Laura Ziskin; and thus the composite character of Cecil was born. Whitaker is subtle and masterful as the tirelessly hardworking Cecil, whose family undergoes turmoil during different points in history. His wife, Gloria (Oprah Winfrey, proving she’s a dynamite actress who convey a great deal with a single look), feels neglected, drinks too much and finds her attention straying. Cecil’s idealistic son, Louis (the charismatic David Oyelowo), butts heads with his dad, and turns into an activist to by getting involved with Martin Luther King Jr., the Freedom Riders and later the Black Panthers. Meanwhile, younger son, Charlie (Elijah Kelley), watches on the sidelines, and provides support and, at times, the film’s comic relief. Director Daniels starts the film with a sock to the gut, thrusting us onto the cotton fields and showing us how despicably African-Americans were treated. The film is rated PG-13, but Daniels doesn’t skirt the ugliness of the time. Especially powerful is a scene later in the film when Daniels shows the hatred spewed at Louis and other young people who sat in the white section at the Woolworth counter. It’s one of the film’s most blistering moments, with Daniels intercutting the intense scene with one of Cecil setting the table at the White House. Just as he did in “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire” and “The Paperboy,” Daniels pays enormous attention to period detail. And while a sweeping historical film such as “Butler” marks a departure for him, his strong visual and emotive style comes through, and works well with the material. Daniels also successfully handle the challenging numerous cameos of stars playing presidents — Robin Williams as Dwight D. Eisenhower, John Cusack as Richard Nixon, James Marsden as John F. Kennedy, Liev Schreiber as Lyndon B. Johnson, Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan — and their families with expertise and ease. Screenwriter Strong helps by honing in on the roles each commander-in-chief played in civil rights. None of the presidents takes center stage here, and they shouldn’t. This is a dramatized historical account about a family that experienced the civil rights movement, and it arrives at a critical juncture in history. It shakes us up and reminds us of where we’ve been, the gains made, and where we hopefully are headed. PG-13. 2 hours, 12 minutes.
“PRISONERS” — This drama is many things: A contemplation of the nature of evil. A morality play about how far someone will go to protect loved ones. A complex character study. Most of all, the film is a compelling mystery-thriller, one that’s absolutely riveting even at an imposing running time of two hours and 30 minutes. Despite some flaws, it is everything a good drama should be — challenging, thoughtful, disturbing — from the beautifully crafted opening sequence to an ending that ... well, to reveal it would be spoiling things. “Prisoners,” the first American and the first English-language movie by the fine French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, is set in a working-class Pennsylvania suburb that is still rural enough to be surrounded by rugged woods. It’s the holidays, and the winter chill, leaden skies and icy drizzle permeate every scene. The central figure is Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), a carpenter and survivalist who works hard to provide for his wife, Grace (Maria Bello); teenage son, Ralph (Dylan Minnette); and little daughter, Anna (Erin Gerasimovich). The family is spending Thanksgiving with their neighbors and best friends, Nancy and Franklin Birch (Viola Davis and Terrence Howard), and their daughter, Joy (Kyla Drew Simmons), who is Anna’s best friend. Nothing remarkable really happens in these scenes, but pay attention, because the smallest moments or gestures help to establish the characters. At some point during the day, Anna and Joy vanish. The police are called, and suspicion immediately focuses on a mute and very creepy young guy named Alex (Paul Dano), who is driving a decaying RV that the girls played on earlier in the day. The lead investigator, an obsessive, moody detective named Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), arrests the creep but is convinced he is innocent. The increasingly desperate Keller is equally convinced that he is guilty as hell and knows where the girls are. Whether Alex is the kidnapper is part of the mystery to the very end. When the police release Alex for lack of evidence, Keller goes ballistic. He snatches Alex off the streets, takes him to an abandoned building and inflicts some serious, very bloody pain. Under the skillful direction of Villeneuve, working from an excellent script by Alex Guzikowski (“Contraband”), “Prisoners” is loaded with twists, turns, unexpected emotions and strong imagery that demands the audience pay attention but also rewards it for its efforts. He gets immeasurable help from the brilliant cinematographer Roger Deakins (“Skyfall”), whose work ensures that every scene has a visual punch. R. 2 hours, 33 minutes. 3.5 stars
“RUSH” — You’d be forgiven if you saw there was a new racing movie titled “Rush” and expected pedal-to-the-metal thrills. And while there are a few fuel-injected moments in the new film from director Ron Howard and writer Peter Morgan — captured quite artistically by talented cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle — the title is decidedly misleading. “Rush” is a study of two men — two talented drivers who are highly skilled, significantly flawed and serve as dual protagonists and antagonists. You shouldn’t be too surprised, however. Howard and Morgan are the tandem behind 2008’s wonderful Oscar-nominated drama “Frost/Nixon,” also a study of two men and, like “Rush,” compelling from beginning to end. “Rush” is bolstered by strong performances from leads Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl, who portray two racers trying to climb into and to the top of the ranks of Formula One. There is the good-looking and charming James Hunt (Hemsworth), a Brit whom we meet at a hospital, where he easily seduces the nurse treating him. And then there’s Austrian Niki Lauda (Bruhl), the guy who gets to a race hours early to walk the track. And thus we have the framework of the film, the talented but easy-going driver against the obsessed perfectionist. The dynamic serves the story well, as we follow the two men in the world of Formula One, which, each season, stages races around the globe at which drivers earn points toward winning the world championship. Neither driver cares much for the other; Niki feels James is reckless — an aggressive move by the latter causes the former to spin out and lose one race — and James feels Niki is a jerk (many people feel this way) who finds too little joy in life. The major plot point in “Rush” comes fairly deep into the movie, as James is trying to catch Niki in the championship standings in 1976. An accident at the rain-soaked German Grand Prix looks to sew up the championship for one of the rivals. However, the other’s determination to beat the odds means this season-long race isn’t over till it’s over. There’s so much to like with “Rush,” starting with the performances of Hemsworth (“Thor”) and Bruhl (“Inglourious Basterds”). And Howard is at the top of this game here. “Rush” never has too much energy when the cars are flying around the track or too little when a scene merely involves calm conversation. It’s a superb study in steadiness. For his part, Morgan continues to cement himself as a top screenwriter. R. 2 hours, 3 minutes. 3.5 stars